Why did Moses break the Tablets?
Posted on: October 30, 2009 - 2:09am
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Why did Moses break the Tablets?
Oh, oh! Here’s one for you to disentangle!
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[“As he drew near the camp, he saw the calf and the dancing. With that, Moses' wrath flared up, so that he threw the tablets down and broke them on the base of the mountain.” Exodus 32:19.]
More baking powder, less religion; more bakeries, less churches.
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There's two possibilities.
1) The sinful Jews didn't deserve the tablets.
2) He was pissed off, so he smashed whatever was handy, which happened to be the commandments, kind of like how tennis players smash their rackets on the ground.
Our revels now are ended. These our actors, | As I foretold you, were all spirits, and | Are melted into air, into thin air; | And, like the baseless fabric of this vision, | The cloud-capped towers, the gorgeous palaces, | The solemn temples, the great globe itself, - Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve, | And, like this insubstantial pageant faded, | Leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff | As dreams are made on, and our little life | Is rounded with a sleep. - Shakespeare
Perhaps Moses thought of the Tablets as being the equivalent of "lions" or "vultures" and therefore he destroyed them.
"Real misanthropes are not found in solitude, but in the world; since it is experience of life, and not philosophy, which produces real hatred of mankind." ( Giacomo Leopardi 1798-1837)
"It's much easier to show compassion to animals. They are never wicked." Haile Selassie
www.whyihatepeople.com
Wait a minute, are you accusing Moses of anti-semitism ?
"Real misanthropes are not found in solitude, but in the world; since it is experience of life, and not philosophy, which produces real hatred of mankind." ( Giacomo Leopardi 1798-1837)
"It's much easier to show compassion to animals. They are never wicked." Haile Selassie
www.whyihatepeople.com
He broke the tablets because he had a hang over. Plop Plop Fizz Fizz, oh what a relief it is.
Yea, I am showing my age.
"For we know that our patchwork heritage is a strength, not a weakness. We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus -- and nonbelievers." President Barack Obama
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Perhaps breaking the tablets was easier then admitting there wasn't anything written on them. Think for a moment; would Moses smash something created by his god, specificly for his use, reguardless of how outraged he was with his brother and the rest of the party goers? A truely devout lawgiver would not do such a thing.
It gives creedence to the fact the story was invented out of thin air. It's a hellava dramatic story but total fiction.
"Very funny Scotty; now beam down our clothes."
VEGETARIAN: Ancient Hindu word for "lousy hunter"
If man was formed from dirt, why is there still dirt?
Good point, jeffrick.
How hard would it have been for Moses to carve the commandments himself and save himself from the possibility of embarrassment ? He had to break then to save face ?
Besides, how would breaking them solve the problem ? Unless Moses ground the Tablets into dust it would be a simple matter for one of his contemporaries to examine even a fragment to detect whether there were indeed inscriptions carved upon the surface. Archeologists work with partially fragmented evidence all the time. Artifacts need not be completely intact to detect such characteristics.
( I don't have time at the moment to look up the scripture reference but I believe that Moses ascended the mountain an additional time to receive the second set of Tablets and there is no record of him smashing those ...not to mention I believe the Tablets were later placed within the Ark Of The Covenant along with Aaron's staff and a sample of manna. )
"Real misanthropes are not found in solitude, but in the world; since it is experience of life, and not philosophy, which produces real hatred of mankind." ( Giacomo Leopardi 1798-1837)
"It's much easier to show compassion to animals. They are never wicked." Haile Selassie
www.whyihatepeople.com
There's more fun and games here to consider.
1)God noticed the people had made gods. He then decided to put his wrath against them and consume them all. God then planned to make a great nation from Moses. Moses convinced God not to kill them because what will the Egyptians say. Moses then guilt trips him by reminding him of the promise he made to Abe, Isaac, and Israel to make a great nation of them. Apparently God was worried about his public image and what might be said in the ancient gossip columns and tabloids about how finicky he was.
2) And then - "And the Lord repented of the evil which he had thought to do unto his people." - Exodus 32:14 So I guess that substantiates the later claim by God he created evil in Isaiah 45:7, he admits such here, so much for any entity being without sin or evil. One needs to ask, who did God repent to?
3)Moses went down the mount and was pissed off, smashing the tablets. The 10 commandments movie started the BS they didn't deserve them. Single handed he destroys the gold calf and grinds it up and forces the people to drink the ground gold in the water. So was Moses related to Hercules, strong enough he could hold people down to force them to drink the gold?
4)He then splits the camp into those on the Lord's side and those not. Only 3,000 men are killed of the 600,000 men that had left Egypt. Apparently forced drinking of gold dust convinced them to be on the Lord's side.
The second set of tablets are made in Exodus 34.
So many holes, so much Sci-Fi, so much fantasy. The 10 commandments movie shows this in even worse light with more BS and fantasy then the original myth.
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"I guess it's time to ask if you live under high voltage power transmission lines which have been shown to cause stimulation of the fantasy centers of the brain due to electromagnetic waves?" - Me
"God is omnipotent, omniscient, omnibenevolent, - it says so right here on the label. If you have a mind capable of believing all three of these divine attributes simultaneously, I have a wonderful bargain for you. No checks please. Cash and in small bills." - Robert A Heinlein.
Hi, pauljohntheskeptic. Appreciated your post very much. You're absolutely correct. "BS & fantasy", you're right!
More baking powder, less religion; more bakeries, less churches.
Here we have almighty god, capable of creating heaven and earth and all the creeping things thereon, carving school rules into stones with his fingernail.
If god had any class he would have given the commandments to Moses on a solar-powered Kindle.
It would have been far easier to carry down a mountain and way easier and more spectacular to smash.
And there's this. The Jews couldn't be left alone for ten minutes before they started making gods up to worship? What a crock.
No one's been able to change their minds about their own silly god for thousands of years.
"Experiments are the only means of knowledge at our disposal. The rest is poetry, imagination." Max Planck
Your point is very, very interesting. Made me think a lot. Thanks.
More baking powder, less religion; more bakeries, less churches.
We should also keep in mind how rediculously undevine the commandments are as well as how funny the story in which they were delivered is. Both taken into consideration leave us with quite an interesting yet laughable story indeed.